This crap has got to stop!

A friends brother died last week at the age of 44. He died of pneumonia. I have had that disease and it will lay a person out, but with proper medical care, it usually isn't fatal. But that's the thing, this man had no medical care because HE COULDN'T AFFORD INSURANCE! He had the opportunity to get some, but it was half of his weekly pay check. And this guy decided to pay rent and support his children. Of course now he can't support anyone. So fuck anyone who says we don't need at least a medicare buy in for all people. A guy who has been fairly healthy all his life should not die and leave two children and an ex wife behind simply because he couldn't afford insurance.

unless they're rich.

from other countries.

because a very few make decisions by proxy for those who think they are buying into the American dream.

not that there's not money to be made in the market. but not by expecting anyone to give a fuck about the American people.

I can't imagine that there will be more than one per large city, if that. And then what about cities of 100,000, will they get one, probably not. Small rural towns, nope, I doubt it.

And then there is the problem of getting the people to the clinics. Transportation can be a bitch when you are poor, and add in the fact that you are really sick, will make it doubly hard.

CHCs are only a band-aid on a pimple in a sea of acne.

zalinda

With every major piece of legislation Americans become creative. New business will be created and existing businesses will try to capitilize on it.

And got to go to the doctor because we have subsidized insurance. And your friend would have likely had a subsidy too, if we had passed something like this ten years ago.

Waiting for a medicare buy-in, which would have been half your friend's paycheck anyway, only guarantees more people will die waiting.

Unlike "health care" brought to you by insurance companies. Insurance companies would charge half of someone's check and cover nothing it all. THAT is the truth about what health "care" reform will do: mandate people buy from these vulture with no guarantees first that they will not charge an arm and a leg and second that they will actually cover anything.

It would have paid for the man in the OP too. Period.

And I suspect you've never done the research on what people have to pay for Medicare if they don't have the required quarters in. You might want to do that before you say it wouldn't cost half of someone's paycheck.

Thats one of the BIGGEST problems with this bill.
People will STILL be dieing for lack of Health Care, but they WILL have a useless "Bronze" Health Insurance Policy in their pocket when they die.

on this board on deductibles and co-pays. They conveniently ignore that monstrous barrier to ACTUAL health care access.

There are local practices that need changing desperately. Nonprofits should be required to see all patients, no exceptions. If a doctor accepts Medicaid and Medicare, she/he should be required to see all patients. If you want to be a private practice doctor, then go be one. But don't use public funds to subsidize your office costs.

These changes have to be enacted at the local level. Local people have to come to understand that things don't have to stay the way they've always been. I can't change Alabama from Oregon, although there are parts of Oregon that are just as bad. I choose not to live in those places either.

I didn't. Our deductible is $500 and our clinic sees people regardless of whether the deductible or co-pay has been met. People have got to demand better at the local level as well. And not accept policies that demand a co-pay at the time of visit, although someone with pneumonia ought to be able to borrow $25 from somebody if they don't have it.

Unfortunately we make too much (gross income) to qualify but too little to afford it on our own.

I wonder how many others are in the same boat.

If you make more than that, you make enough to buy insurance.

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a couple of days in the hospital with a miracle intravenous drug (can't remember the name of it now), my fever broke and I was feeling human again... was able to go home a few days later and back to work after a couple of weeks.

I'm so sorry for the death of your friend's brother.

It should not be this way in America. Such a shame.

And now his children have no father. :cry:

It was treatable..but didn't have health insurance..and never got it seen to..

:kick: & R

I'm around the age of your friend's brother and that's what I keep getting from our fellow "democrats" in a thread I made.

I don't know your friend's brother's circumstances, so I don't know if the new law might have helped him. But there are plenty of us who are in the same situation now and it isn't going to change for at least four years. More preventable deaths like this will continue to happen under the current health care reform law because PEOPLE CAN'T AFFORD TO BUY HEALTH INSURANCE.

But hey, don't mention that around here. We're all supposed to pretend that everything is fixed now and Obama and the democrats came through for us. Or maybe it's ok to bring it up after someone dies but not before? We'll have to wait for the "Never criticize Obama" brigade to pop in and let us know.

We have no insurance. We've gone a year without it now. Every day is "Oh, God, don't let either of us get sick." We're both in our forties.

My husband had a headache yesterday. He also has an infection on a part of his body that isn't fun. The doctor visit was $90. He had to go. We're filling the prescriptions today. We're also looking at paying for my husband's insulin and other drugs; we're just over the limit for www.needymeds.org.

Every day now is wondering and worrying. At least we have a roof over our heads. It's amazing to me how many are still continuing to believe that this administration will pull a rabbit out of a hat re: health care. It's not the fucking health insurance. It's the co-pays and deductibles and out-of-pocket that goes with it. Oh, yeah -- it's also the fact we're over 40, and we'll pay as much as 300% more in premiums because of it.

And insane for our society --

would shrug this off as a lazy person who didn't have a job good enough to give him insurance. Stupid pricks.

So sorry. I'm always sad to hear of anyone who dies due to lack of healthcare, no matter who they are. I wish his family the best.

Was coughing like crazy, felt weak, didn't feel like eating, & after few days went to doctor...Said lungs sounded fine, but gave me script to get chest X ray....Office called the next day & said it was indeed pneumonia....I was given prescription for Zithromax & I felt very good within couple days....I was 34 when i got it, now naturally, if older individual or person who is already sick w/another illness gets pneumonina it could be very dangerous, but my case was resolved quickly...And if your friends brother was only 44 w/no other health issues, he likely could have recovered easily from it w/the proper care...Sadly, he became yet another unnesscary death in a country that views health care as a privilege & not a right...

It's not always a case of lack of medical care. Sometimes it's not going to the doctor when you can and should; and sometimes it's the rapidity of the pneumonia that takes a strong and dangerous hold on a person.

But the biggest and most shameful problem is the lack of affordable health care for all. That's unforgivable in this nation. I don't know how people who fight against this can sleep at night knowing people are suffering.

I moved to Canada 2 1/2 years ago. Routine checkups, a CAT scan (everything was ok), and I discovered for the first time in my life that I have had a lifelong stress-related condition that I have to stay on top of.... all of it FREE!!! I don't mean pay a deductible and it's free, I don't mean only certain illnesses and conditions are free...I mean it's all FREE!!! Canada fought the insurance industry back in the 70s. Tommy Douglas, the member of Parliament who carried it through (he was kind of like the Canadian Dennis Kucinich) is today a national hero and voted in a recent opinion poll as the all-time most liked politician....And yes, he was a Socialist.

:kick:

Not to be a dick by any means since I don't know a lot about pneumonia, but I was under the assumption that you can go to a primary care physician and get antibiotics to take care of it. It would probably only cost $50-150 to see a NP or MD and get antibiotics. But that is assuming he didn't need hospitalization. But my point is insurance is not the same as medical care, and many doctors are now offering discounts if you pay yourself rather than use insurance (less headache). A person can still get primary care out of pocket.

Also a medicare buy in isn't going to be dirt cheap. Medicare covers about 50 million people and costs 500 billion a year in taxes alone (medicare also has monthly payments from users). So at least $10,000 in premiums a year in one form or another if you have a buy in. Then again medicare covers the elderly, those with renal disease and a few other conditions. So I am hoping they wouldn't charge a 40 year old $10,000 a year to join.

pay the out of pocket cost of medical care either. Many people who don't have a family doctor wind up at walk-in clinics when they need to see a doctor. In my experience, the first visit is to be paid, in full, using cash or credit card only, at the time of treatment. This can be completely out of reach for people who live from paycheck to paycheck, especially when the wage-earner has to miss work due to illness which means a smaller paycheck. Remember, most jobs that can't or don't offer insurance to their employees don't pay sick leave, either.

Because the situation you are describing basically implies that the guy the OP is referencing died for lack of access to $100.

The health bill is supposed to dramatically expand primary care and community care clinics due to things Sanders put in the bill. So hopefully that'll help some people.